The present invention is directed to a method that combines real-world research and online access to provide financial donors with insight into charitable or philanthropic organizations including such organizations' finances, operations and programs.
Community foundations, and other charitable or philanthropic organizations, work to improve the quality of life in particular communities through partnership with financial donors. Many community foundations have discovered that such positive change occurs more rapidly and is more effectively directed to areas of particular need in the community when charitable monies are combined, managed, and donated where appropriate. Accordingly, funds have been created wherein each particular fund is dedicated to a particular charitable organization or category of organizations. For example, a fund may be dedicated to a local homeless shelter or to all homeless shelters in the community. These funds may be started by individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations alike. The community foundation manages these funds and provides strategic planning to enable donors to make decisions as to where charitable monies would best be used.
Most donors have particular interests and prefer to direct their charitable monies to particular organizations or a particular group of organizations. However, in order to choose, for example, one homeless shelter over another homeless shelter as the receipt of the donor's monies, the donor needs sufficient information to make an intelligent decision so that the monies are directed to the shelter that is most likely to utilize such monies effectively. It is desirable, therefore, to provide donors with information regarding many different charitable or philanthropic organizations and allow the donors to manage their contributions through intelligent decision-making and giving.
Accordingly, there is need in the art for a user-friendly method for gathering intelligence regarding particular charitable or philanthropic organizations that would be useful to a donor seeking to donate charitable monies in an effective manner so as to create positive change. There is also a need in the art for a user-friendly method of distributing such information to donors and potential donors and for allowing donors to actively manage their funds and donations.